The Thunder’s “Big Three” and total team production

As I wrote in the “We don’t want you, Ben Gordon!” column, OKC was one of two teams (New York being the other) that had three players attempt at least 1,000 shots on the season. Kevin Durant took 1,390, Russell Westbrook 1,095 and Jeff Green 1,068. That got me to thinking – was OKC’s “Big Three” the most relied upon trio in the league?

The three averaged 57.1 points per game together and the entire team averaged 97.0 ppg. So of the team’s total points per game, Durant, Green and Westbrook averaged 58.8 percent of the total scoring. Three teams had three players contribute more to the overall scoring than OKC. Dallas was first with Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard scoring 62.4 percent of the team’s points per game. Chris Paul, David West and Peja Stojakovic combined for 59.6 percent of the Hornets total output. And LeBron James, Mo Williams and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 58.9 percent of the Cavs total points per game (with LeBron having a huge chunk of everything).

But scoring is not the only thing Durant, Green and Westbrook did. They took 52.9 percent of the teams total shots (3,553 of 6,716) and per game, 45.9 of 81.9 shots (56 percent). And they made 52.4 percent of the team’s total baskets. They took 606 of the OKC’s 949 three pointers (63.8 percent) and made 69.5 percent of the Thunder’s total threes. They attempted 60.8 percent of the OKC’s free throws and made 64.1 percent of team’s total freebies. They grabbed 40 percent of the team’s rebounds, had 47.8 percent of the team’s total assists, had 50.5 percent of the team’s turnovers and averaged 36.1 minutes a game between them.

In other words, they kind of did it all. The 54.4 average of those 12 categories is the highest combined percentage of total production/usage in the league. The thing is, a lot of teams had three guys that scored a lot together. Or maybe dished out a bunch of assists together. But really nobody combined the amount of three pointers taken with rebounds and assists. I even left out steals and blocks, but OKC’s three combined for 47 percent of the team’s steals and 27 percent of the blocks. They really did do it all.

Compare that to Boston’s “Big Three” of Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Piece (granted, Garnett did miss 25 games). They took 46.7 percent of the team’s shots for the season, took 52.8 percent of the team’s shots per game, scored 54 percent of the team’s points per game, made 59.1 percent of the team’s three pointers (and that’s with Ray Allen!), took 45 percent of the team’s free throws and made 50.8 percent of the club’s free throws. They grabbed 35.3 percent of the rebounds, dished out 35.2 percent of the assists, had 35.3 percent of the turnovers and averaged 35 minutes a game. Whew.

For the Mavs, Dirk, Terry and Howard really just mainly did the scoring and shooting. They only combined for 32 percent of the Mavs total rebounds, 29.8 percent of the assists, 35 percent of the turnovers and averaged 34.4 minutes a game. And that’s really what most every other combo did as well. Like Kobe, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom were strong in scoring and rebounding, but weak in assists and three pointers. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili kind of the same thing. And on down the line. Nobody really did everything like Durant, Green and Westbrook.

So what’s it mean? I’m not really sure, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Obviously, help is needed and you shouldn’t have three players providing THAT much of your team’s total production. It helps that the three are spread out fairly evenly on the court with Westbrook at the point picking up assists, Durant scoring and rebounding and Green scoring and rebounding. But still, KD had to do so much this season as he was third on the team in assists, first in blocks, second in steals and third in rebounds.

If you’ll notice, all the other teams with successful trios (Cavs, Mavs, Celtics, Spurs and Hornets) were all playoff teams and all had sterling records. And while they all had three very productive players, they also had this little thing called role players. Andersen Varejao and Delonte West. Rajon Rondo and Leon Powe. Roger Mason Jr. and Michael Finley. James Posey and Tyson Chandler. Who did OKC have in that key supplementary role? Nick Collison? Nenad Krstic? Earl “God Help Us” Watson? Those guys are decent players, but they aren’t the key major contributors. Maybe Krstic could be with a full season, but still help is needed. And let’s hope the balls bounce right and BIG help is on the way.

@RoyceCould you imagine the chants? Take a line from Jon Coulton's song and we could all join in "all we wanna do is eat your brains" when opposing players are shooting free throws. Very creepy, I can guarantee it would cause a few misses.

BTW, I read the Simmons article today and heard a much more fun term to describe our Thunder: Zombie Sonics. Now, the Sonics label is problematic, but Zombies are trumped only by Werewolves in my pantheon of supernatural creatures. Could we just be the OKC Zombies, because that would be awesome - especially painting faces and dressing up for games.

To address any vampire aficionados, I can only say that I was forced to watch Twilight with my girlfriend a while ago and thus can no longer bring myself to like vampires in any way.

Interesting points:Big 3 took 52.9% of total shots, made 52.4% of total makes. This means that the Big 3, as a whole, were less efficient shooters than the rest of the team. Factor in that we can clearly see how efficient Durant is, and to a lesser degree Green, and it suddenly puts a glaring light on Westbrook. I know we've talked about his shooting woes, but it points out another important point: Westbrook never had any business taking the number of shots he did. Improvement or no, Brooks is going to need to hold him more accountable next year.

The Big 3 took 63.8% of the team's three pointers and made 69.3% of the total makes from beyond the arc. Factor in that Green and Durant made 60% of the three pointers between themselves, and we are again hit with a big problem. One, we don't have anyone who will even take a three point shot outside of those two. Two, no one else can hit a three even if they take the shot. We've talked about this from a spacing and "look" perspective, but it's even more glaring. Green is supposed to be a PF, but he's our only three point threat outside of Durant. He's not Rasheed Wallace who, not lately but before, could still defend in the paint with the best. The point is that we're not just lacking in shooters, we are SO lacking that we are FORCED to play Green or Durant out of position just to compensate.

RoyGoesTheDynamite :Totals are nice, but how does your “Big 3″ compare on a per minute basis to other teams around the league? Per minute stats are an introduction to the idea of ‘efficiency’ and can provide some argument as to whether Durant, Green, and Westbrook are actually producing at a rate much better than the opposition or if they’re just getting additional minutes/opportunities not offered to more competitive teams.In short, it’s the “stats on a bad team aka Zach Randolph” philosophy, right? Presumably, there’s a certain number of shots, rebounds, assists, etc in every game and if you’re playing 3-on-5 (as I believe you’re saying with your role players argument), you’d assume two things - 1.) The 3 wouldn’t win very much and 2.)Their stats would represent a large majority of the team’s overall performance.Thunder < Sonics (obligatory)

That's a great point, but per minute can be so freaking skewed. Heck, D.J. White is way more productive than Jeff Green per minute. It's got to be used carefully and within perspective.

And I'm not trying to use the article as an illustration of how "awesome" Durant, Green and Westbrook are. It's more just to show how much they were relied upon and how thin OKC was minus their production. I think your point that they were getting offered more opportunity is spot on. Would they bring in 40 percent of the rebounds if there was a Dwight Howard or just a nice complementary role player under the goal? Heck no. Would they make almost 70 percent of the team's 3-pointers if there was a sharpshooter on the outside? Absolutely not.

More than anything, I'm saying they need help and that these three can be counted on to do EVERYTHING.

Totals are nice, but how does your "Big 3" compare on a per minute basis to other teams around the league? Per minute stats are an introduction to the idea of 'efficiency' and can provide some argument as to whether Durant, Green, and Westbrook are actually producing at a rate much better than the opposition or if they're just getting additional minutes/opportunities not offered to more competitive teams.

In short, it's the "stats on a bad team aka Zach Randolph" philosophy, right? Presumably, there's a certain number of shots, rebounds, assists, etc in every game and if you're playing 3-on-5 (as I believe you're saying with your role players argument), you'd assume two things - 1.) The 3 wouldn't win very much and 2.)Their stats would represent a large majority of the team's overall performance.

Speaking of players that could help fill a huge hole in free agency, we should all get to see a good amount of Marcin Gortat in game six of the Sixers vs Magic series since Dwight Howard has been suspended for the game.

This will be a great opportunity to see how he would do in a starting role in a pressure atmosphere against another defensive, rebounding, shot-blocking center in Dalembert. Especially since minutes are hard to come by for him since he's behind the most dominant center in the NBA at the moment.